2005 ESLAB Symposium
26 January 2005
"Trends in Space Science and Cosmic Vision 2020"
ESTEC (Noordwijk, The Netherlands)
19-21 April 2005
Second announcement & Call for Papers
European space science has really matured during the last decades. Astronomical observatories covering all regions from the infrared to gamma rays have been launched. A solar system exploration program has been put in place including comets, the Moon, Titan and Mars, with Venus and Mercury to come, as well as missions to study the Sun and its relation to our planet Earth. Finally, missions targeting the detection and observation of gravitational waves are being developed.
ESA's approach to the definition of the future Science Program involves both direct discussions with the scientific community via its advisory structure and open, competitive calls for proposals. The missions currently in the program were selected using this procedure and cover launches up to 2015. The definition of the program for the period 2015-2025 (Cosmic Vision 2020) is currently ongoing. This time the discussion started with scientific objectives or themes that will be followed later by the identification of specific missions to carry out the selected themes. In the process, technology developments have to be identified together with possibilities for international cooperation. The themes for Cosmic Vision 2020 were presented in a preliminary form during a workshop held in Paris in September 2004. Activities are ongoing to prepare a final proposal in the form of a report to be widely distributed to the scientific community. This symposium will look at a more developed picture.
As an example of the initial recommendations, in the area of solar system exploration, research could be undertaken on the 3-D solar magnetic field as well as the space plasma processes that occur on a hierarchy of scales in the terrestrial and Jovian magnetospheres. The giant planets and particularly their moons, together with sample return missions or subsurface measurements in minor bodies or Mars are also possible areas for future missions.
In the area of space astronomy topics include the study of extrasolar planets, their discovery, formation mechanisms and characterization, and the detection of traces of life, the birth of stars, a deeper understanding of the very beginning of the Universe, as well as its lesser known constituents such as dark matter and dark energy, and the evolving high-energy elements of it, such as the environment of black holes, their structure and their role in structure of the Universe. Finally, in the area of fundamental physics from space, attention is being focused on quantum gravity, matter in the form of Bose-Einstein condensates and more sensitive gravitational wave detectors leading eventually to the measurement of primordial gravitational waves.
Call for Papers
The present announcement is also a call for contributed papers to be presented to the Symposium. Oral presentation will be selected by the SOC from the submitted abstracts, and ample space is available for poster papers. Abstracts are to be submitted electronically, using the form available here by the February 9 deadline. Please note that even if you have provided a preliminary contribution title in your Expression of Interest for your abstract to be considered by the SOC you need to fill the on-line Abstract form.
Please feel free to pass this message to any colleague who might be interested in the meeting and who may not be in the initial mailing list. Note that the invitation is equally open to scientists working both in ESA- and non-ESA-member states.
Full details on the symposium can be found at the symposium website http://www.congrex.nl/05a14/.
Scientific Organizing Committee
Alvaro Gimenez (ESA/ESTEC - chair)
Risto Pellinen (Finnish Meteorological Institute)
Giovanni Bignami (CESR)
Catherine Turon (Obs. Paris Meudon)
Bernard Schutz (MPI for Gravitational Physics)
Peter Cargill (Imperial College)
Fabio Favata (ESA/ESTEC)
Local Organizing Committee
C. Bingham
F. Favata
J. Sanz-Forcada